What do sales people do when everyone is on holiday?

What do you do when your clients are on holiday? For the seasoned sales professionals out there, you will have gone through countless summer holidays, Christmas breaks, bank holidays, half terms and lots of other events that can cause a slow down in sales!

This is a perceived issue that we face each year – I call it a holiday lull – where people aren’t signing on the dotted line as much as we’d like them to! What can we do to overcome it? Here are 5 ideas to help us when we have some down time:

1) Ramp up marketing efforts

Use the time wisely to get your company and solution out there. When we’re in back-to-back meetings, dealing with new starters, responding to tenders etc you may not have as much time as you would like to start a new marketing campaign. Consider things like targeted campaigns, email marketing, or good old fashioned cold calling! With response likely to be drip-feeding back in, this will likely set you up for the next 6 months.

2) Remain calm and set expectations

Sales is a marathon and not a sprint. We are normally given yearly targets and as such, as long as the end number is hit, we are bound to have some quarters that are better than others. Set the expectations of your clients that things run slower in the summer – and people are typically tougher to get hold of. Constant communication and set expectations keeps the deal warm for when all parties return.

3) Research new areas and target markets

Sometimes a sales role is so busy that we can get caught up in a spiral, without taking a step back and evaluating the market as a whole. How many times do we miss a hot market or new technology because we’re caught up in our own world? Understanding client problems will help for new conversations for a long time after.

4) Re-train – learn new skills

As Gary Player, the famous golfer, said: “the harder I practice the luckier I get”. We always strive to become the ultimate business machine, however by learning new and interesting methodologies will expand the mind and may even help when it comes to new situations.

5) Rest – have a holiday as well!

Quite simply – if your clients are on holiday, why shouldn’t you go on holiday? There is no better time to get away! Nothing will move further along the pipeline, and very few decisions will be made without all key stakeholders so take advantage and have a rest as well!